Part 36 (1/2)

The car rounded the pond where Sammy had had his adventure at the ice-house and had ruined his knickerbockers. It was a straight road from that point to Milton. Going up the hill beside the pond in the gray light of dawn, they saw ahead of them a man laboring on in the middle of the road with a child upon his shoulders, while two other small figures walked beside him, clinging to his coat.

”There's somebody else moving,” said Mr. Pinkney to Agnes. ”What do you know about little children being abroad at this time of the morning?”

”Shall we give them a lift?” asked Neale. ”Only I don't want to stop on this hill.”

But he did. He stopped in another minute because Agnes uttered a piercing scream.

”Oh, Tessie! Oh, Dot! It's them! It's the children!”

”Great Moses!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Mr. Pinkney, forced likewise into excitement, ”is that Sammy Pinkney?”

The man carrying Dot turned quickly. Tess and Sammy both uttered eager yelps of recognition. Dot bobbed sleepily above the head of the man who carried her pickaback.

”Oh, Agnes! isn't this my day for wearing that bracelet? Say, isn't it?” she demanded.

The dark man came forward, speaking very politely and swiftly.

”It is the honest Kenway--yes? You remember Costello? I am he. I find your sisters with the bad Gypsies--yes. Then you will give me Queen Alma's bracelet--the great heirloom of our family? I am friend--I bring children back for you. You give me bracelet?”

Tess and Dot were tumbled into their sister's arms. Mr. Pinkney jumped out of the car and grabbed Sammy before he could run.

Costello, the junkman, repeated his request over and over while Agnes was greeting the two little girls as they deserved to be greeted.

Finally he made some impression upon her mind.

”Oh, dear me!” Agnes cried in exasperation, ”how can I give it you? I don't know where it is. It's been stolen.”

”Stolen? That Beeg Jeem!” Again Costello exploded in his native tongue.

Tess nestled close to Agnes. She lifted her lips and whispered in her sister's ear:

”Don't tell him. He's a Gypsy, too, though I guess he is a good one. I have got that bracelet inside my dress. It's safe.”

They did not tell Costello, the junkman, that at this time. In fact, it was some months before Mr. Howbridge, by direction of the Court, gave Queen Alma's bracelet into the hands of Miguel Costello, who really proved in the end that he had the better right to the bracelet that undoubtedly had once belonged to the Queen of the Spanish Gypsies.

It had not been merely by chance that the young Gypsy woman who had sold the green and yellow basket to Tess and Dot had dropped that ornament into the basket. She had worn the bracelet, for she was Big Jim's daughter.